Thursday, June 6, 2013

This garlic and basil mayonnaise recipe was inspired by my
friend Jennifer Perillo's fabulous new cookbook, Homemade with Love. As a
longtime admirer of In Jennie's Kitchen, I expected her cookbook to be filled amazing
recipes and gorgeous pictures, and it certainly was, but what I didn’t expect
was to see my name and this blog mentioned on page 229!

That’s right, on Jennifer’s homemade mayonnaise recipe, we
were credited with the always-impressive immersion blender method seen herein.
She even called me a genius, which is obviously a very, very slight
exaggeration. I feel kind of guilty since I didn’t invent this technique, but
since I don’t remember who showed me, it’s just going to be easier to take
credit.

Jennifer and I have very similar tastes, and if you like my
videos I’m fairly sure you’ll love this book. I really enjoy when a cookbook
author shares little stories and anecdotes to introduce the recipes, and she’s
done that throughout.

To understand where a recipe comes from, and why it’s
being shared, always makes it more fun to cook and savor. That’s why I talk so
much during my videos. Anyway, for more info, follow this link to Amazon where
Homemade with Love is enjoying rave reviews. Enjoy!

For anyone without a stick blender you can make mayo with a whisk then add the finely chopped other ingredients. Just a heads up, I'd love a stick blender but have been traveling for a couple years and customs always thinks the stick blender is a weapon.

I have been making homemade mayo for some time now using my food processor, but today I tried your stick blender technique with the recipe I've been using (1 whole egg, 2 tsp mustard, 1 Tlb vinegar, 1 cup oil, salt, pepper). It worked perfectly and there was much less to clean up!

You liar! I just spet je last two hours in my kitchen waisting perfectly fine eggs, I tried it twice, had to go to the store to get an extra lemon, triple-checked and followed every step and measurement exactly and I still ended up with some weird yellowish, liquid goop. Clearly bringing the blender up through the oil is not the only way to screw this up, the second time I kept it at the bottom the entire time, afraid to fail again. I really wanted to prove my mom wrong and show it's not incredibly hard to make your own mayo, and now all I have is a lot of wasted ingerdiënts and a family dinner that is very late. What did I do wrong?! :(

Perfect timing! The boyfriend just got me a stick blender (he does love me), so I had to show him this video and your ringing endorsement even though he doesn't eat mayo. No more obnoxious cleanup, hooray!

Tried out the recipe (2 tbsp's of lemon juice, no vinegar), and something odd happened. First the liquid did emulsify, but it didn't thicken up. I tried adding a splash of vinegar after which it became thick like mayo.

I tried out the recipe (2 tbsp's lemon juice, no vinegar), and something odd happened. The liquid did emulsify, but it stayed very liquid. I tried adding a splash of vinegar, after which it thickened up.

I've been using this method for years. However, a friend of mine told me she makes mayo out of a whole egg, placing the vertical blender 'cup' over the yolk. I tried it and it works even better. Any thoughts on whole egg mayo?

Chef John, I love your videos. But this one I believe is wrong. I used the exact measuring cup in your video, followed recipe exactly and did the pulses exactly to blend and it never thickened up to mayo consistency. I was actually upset about it. Please review your video and tell us why me and other people on this post are ending up with liquid per your recipe! Thanks John

I had the problem of liquidify :-( after 4 tries I find out that my stick blender have too small blades, even after I see mayo forming on the bottom, I had to pulse more and hold the blender for more time and go up less tha an inch, i felt when the blades were not "mixing" anymore, just rotating, so I go up a tiny bit up, finally it worked.

Later I tried the same, only this time, reduce the oil to 1 cup it was easier.

Any toughts on this cheff? Thanks for all the help and the great recipes :-)

For those who have a Magic Bullet, don't even try with it, that do not work well, I tried with both blade, it was a big failure. The secret is to start to mix without oil and then to incorporate the oil little by little... but even like that it's not perfect. also do not believe the commercial, the Magic Bullet is not that great...

I've tried this and your neutral mayo (because I didn't want to waste garlic and basil) three times now and I just can't get it to thicken!I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I have a stick blender, I have a measuring cup that's the size of the blender head, I am using the correct measurements and all the ingredients (making half batches though, to save wasted ingredients) and I still can't get it to work.I stick it all the way to the buttom and pulse quick pulses on and off, all good, thick mayo seems to be forming, but as I keep pulsing and more forming it just thins out, and turns into a liquid rather than a cream. I've tried sticking the bottom only, wiggling it around a bit, and going a bit more aggressive like in your original mayo video. I truly don't have any idea what I could be doing wrong, do you have any idea, Chef John? I would love to try this but I really don't want to waste more eggs and oil.. (I even tried with half the oil amount and even that didn't thicken).

Chef John, you've completely ruined me! I used to be happy with plain-old, store-bought light mayo, but now that I've had the real thing, I can't go back!

I've made this (and your other homemade mayo) recipe four times now and absolutely love it. You can practically eat this with a spoon, but it makes an ordinary chicken salad something truly special.

To those reading the comments and nervous about trying this: I have a super-old stick blender which was my wife's from before we got married, and I have been doing all the mixing in a pyrex measuring cup. I gave it a couple hits on low and then steadily on low until the mayo starts to form, which takes maybe three seconds. After that you're just blending everything else in.

I've halved the ingredients every time I've made it, and with various acids. Per Chef John's comments and original video, I have found that 3 parts "plain" (vegetable, canola) oil to one part olive oil works well to my taste. The one I made with 100% evoo was my least favorite.

If the salmonella badness is on the exterior of the eggshells, why not blanch the basil before the eggs? Now you're putting the basil in pristine, unpolluted hot water. After transferring it to the ice bath, then you can simmer the eggs for 30 seconds and let the potential salmonella flow into the hotbath. Then scoop out the eggs with the strainer, rinse under the tap for 5 seconds (to wash off any miniscule traces of possible salmonella yuck), and dump them into the ice bath.

about the only difference between the one I am using and yours is that my has a flat bottom vs a toothed bottom like yours. The next time I try I will video myself making the Mayo to see if you can spot what I am doing wrong. knowing my luck when I go to video myself it will work ....

I thought I'd share -- this has worked for me at least a half dozen times, but for whatever reason it failed to work this weekend -- twice... I thought I saw the mayo forming and started blending more liberally, only to end up with a runny yellow liquid.

The only thing I can think of is the order in which I added things -- though I'm fairly certain I've always done it this way -- I measured the oil first and then put everything else in on top of it. I waited a minute or so before blending, but maybe the acids didn't make it to the bottom before blending, and therefore I didn't get an emulsification?

Well I tried this and was horribly dissatisfied with the results. My mayonnaise ended up a light yellow goo. I tried it ten times and the result was always the same. And it baffles me how it looked so easy in both of your videos. Really I can't see what I was doing wrong as my stick blender was a perfect fit in the measuring cup. Thus this is the first recipe by you which I've yet to succeed at. Kudos for making me want to challenge myself. Someday... someday I will have my mayo.

I'm so bummed! Tried this twice and both times I couldn't get this to emulsify... not sure what I'm doing wrong... used an appropriate sized container, same exact hand blender you have... the non-emulsified mixture actually made a pretty decent marinade for chicken though... we didn't want to waste it, so poured it on and they came out nice on the grill... Hoping to get this to work some time, I have made mayo before, but only using the whisk and drizzle method... this seemed like it would be so easy :(

Hey Chef John, please put an annotation saying that the Pyrex cup DOES NOT WORK with most hand-blenders, as the curved bottoms does not allow the blender to be pushed up against the bottom. I initially tried this, but it failed to emulsify. I then added a few egg yolks to a flat-bottomed drinking cup, threw the goopy mess in there on top of it, and blended it some more, and it emulsified much better. The result was not the best, but it certainly wasn't the sludge I had before, it was in between, leaning towards the mayo-side. Thanks!-Matthew

Oh yeah, if anyone has an immersion stick that has a low to high setting, have it on low to make mayonnaise. First I tried it on high, it just made the yellow goop. The next batch was on low and it came out as really thick mayonnaise.

Okay, so every time I've tried making mayo it turns out like a think oil, tastes terrible. In my defense I've never had an immersion blender. Now that I have one I thought I would give this a try. It turned out amazing and is fantastic in a potato salad.

Thanks, Chef John, I'll be making this on often. (Not too often though)

I have had success and failure with this recipe. The most important step is to ensure that your blender is over the egg yoke and that the hold it down against the bottom of your container. Also use as short on and off pulses as possible when starting. It does work.